Infrastructure

An agreement has been signed between the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) and the Nepal Electricity Authority to install smart street lights on the main roads of the Kathmandu metropolitan area.

The Rs12 million initiative will see KMC invest 60 per cent and NEA 40 per cent.

Officials plan to install LED lights on the major streets to help smooth movement of people and vehicles, while ensuring safety of people at night, said Ram Bahadur Thapa, head of the Infrastructure Development Department at KMC.

The streets, where KMC will invest, include: Lainchaur-Maharajgunj; Maitighar-Bagbazar;  Bagbazar-Sheetal Niwas; Tribhuvan International Airport-Gaushala- Kamalpokhari; and Chabahil-Jorpati. 

Similarly, the state-owned power monopoly NEA’s investment will go to TIA-Tinkune-Baneshwor-Maitighar-Teku-Kalimati; and Tripureshwor-Lainchaur; and around Tundikhel.

After the installation, the project will be handed over to KMC, which will be entitled to pay the electricity bills to the NEA. The two sides have been working on the joint initiative since December 2022 .

Pramod Rijal, the project manager and deputy manager overseeing the street light project at NEA, said: “This is just an agreement, we have yet to set a specific timeline for the project.”

“We hope to complete it by 2024,” adds Rijal.

The lights will be centrally connected to NEA servers by wireless medium, which will feed instructions to the lights to turn on or off or to dim.

The server automatically obtains the sunrise and sunset data of Nepal from the internet and instructs the street light post, which will have the technology to process and respond accordingly, Rijal said.

He confirmed the light can also be programmed to auto-dim when there is low or no use.

With this KMC plans to switch away from solar lights, which have a tendency to break down quickly and not work properly in the dusty bowl-shaped Kathmandu. As the dust covers the solar photo-voltaic panels, the electricity generation tanks, and the poorly charged batteries cannot light on all night.

The added benefit will be reduced energy bills and also the upfront cost of installation, said Rijal.